Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) as immune cells within the tumor microenvironment have gained much interests as basic science regarding their roles in tumor progression unfolds. Better understanding of their polarization into pro-tumoral phenotype to promote tumor growth, tumor angiogenesis, immune evasion, and tumor metastasis has prompted various studies to investigate their clinical significance as a biomarker of predictive and prognostic value across different cancer types. Yet, the methodologies to investigate the polarization phenomena in solid tumor tissue vary. Nonetheless, quantifying the ratio of M1 to M2 TAMs has emerged to be a prevailing parameter to evaluate this polarization phenomena for clinical application. This mini-review focuses on recent studies exploring clinical significance of M1/M2 TAM ratio in human cancer tissue and critically evaluates the technicalities and challenges in quantifying this parameter for routine clinical practice. Immunohistochemistry appears to be the preferred methodology for M1/M2 TAM evaluation as it is readily available in clinical laboratories, albeit with certain limitations. Recommendations are made to standardize the quantification of TAMs for better transition into clinical practice and for better comparison among studies in various populations of patients and cancer types. Copyright © 2020 Jayasingam, Citartan, Thang, Mat Zin, Ang and Ch'ng.Objectives To assess the association between left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic dysfunction and grade ?2 radiation pneumonitis (RP) for locally advanced lung cancer patients receiving definitive radiotherapy. https://www.selleckchem.com/ Materials and Methods A retrospective analysis was carried out for 260 lung cancer patients treated with definitive radiotherapy between 2015 and 2017. RP was evaluated according to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) toxicity criteria. Logistic regression analysis, 10-fold cross validation, and external validation were performed. The prediction model's discriminative performance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), and calibration of the model was assessed by the Hosmer-Lemeshow test and the calibration curve. Results Within the first 6 months after radiotherapy, 70 patients (26.9%) developed grade ?2 RP. Reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) before radiotherapy was detected in 53 patients (20.4%). The odds ratio (OR) of developing RP for patients with LVEF less then 50% was 3.42 [p less then 0.001, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.85-6.32]. Multivariate analysis showed that forced expiratory volume in the first second/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC), LVEF, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, chemotherapy, and mean lung dose (MLD) were significantly associated with grade ?2 RP. The AUC of a model including the above five variables was 0.835 (95% CI, 0.778-0.891) on 10-fold cross validation and 0.742 (95% CI, 0.633-0.851) on the external validation set. The p-value for the Hosmer-Lemeshow test was 0.656 on 10-fold cross validation and 0.534 on the external validation set. Conclusion LV systolic dysfunction is a possible independent risk factor for RP in locally advanced lung cancer patients receiving definitive radiotherapy. Copyright © 2020 Cai, Liang, Li, Meng and Yu.Object To identify genes of prognostic value which associated with tumor microenvironment (TME) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Methods and Materials Level 3 AML patients gene transcriptome profiles were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Clinical characteristics and survival data were extracted from the Genomic Data Commons (GDC) tool. Then, limma package was utilized for normalization processing. ESTIMATE algorithm was used for calculating immune, stromal and ESTIMATE scores. We examined the distribution of these scores in Cancer and Acute Leukemia Group B (CALGB) cytogenetics risk category. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) curves were used to evaluate the relationship between immune scores, stromal scores, ESTIMATE scores and overall survival. We performed clustering analysis and screened differential expressed genes (DEGs) by using heatmaps, volcano plots and Venn plots. After pathway enrichment analysis and gene set enrichment analysis (GESA), protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constrthe curve = 0.725). Finally, the heatmap from Vizome database demonstrated that 18 hub genes showed high expression in patient samples. Conclusion We identified 18 TME-related genes which significantly associated with overall survival in AML patients from TCGA database. Copyright © 2020 Ni, Wu, Qi, Li, Yu, Liu, Feng and Zheng.Introduction In the United States and Europe, endometrial endometrioid carcinoma (EEC) is the most prevalent gynecologic malignancy. Lymph node metastasis (LNM) is the key determinant of the prognosis and treatment of EEC. A biomarker that predicts LNM in patients with EEC would be beneficial, enabling individualized treatment. Current preoperative assessment of LNM in EEC is not sufficiently accurate to predict LNM and prevent overtreatment. This pilot study established a biomarker signature for the prediction of LNM in early stage EEC. Methods We performed RNA sequencing in 24 clinically early stage (T1) EEC tumors (lymph nodes positive and negative in 6 and 18, respectively) from Cathay General Hospital and analyzed the RNA sequencing data of 289 patients with EEC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (lymph node positive and negative in 33 and 256, respectively). We analyzed clinical data including tumor grade, depth of tumor invasion, and age to construct a sequencing-based prediction model using machine learningarly stage EEC. These five genes may represent novel targets for further mechanistic study. Our results, after corroboration by a prospective study, may have useful clinical implications and prevent unnecessary elective lymph node dissection while not adversely affecting the outcome of treatment for early stage EEC. Copyright © 2020 Huang, Liao, Chou, Shrestha, Yang, Chiew, Huang, Hong, Huang, Chang and Huang.Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is associated with several genetic syndromes. However, the molecular mechanism underlying PDAC progression is still unknown. In this study, we showed that Laminin Subunit Beta 3 (LAMB3) was aberrantly overexpressed in PDAC and was closely associated with the overall survival rate of patients with PDAC. Functional studies demonstrated that LAMB3 played important roles in cell proliferation, the cell cycle, and invasion capacity. Using bioinformatics analysis, we determined that miR-24-3p was an upstream miRNA of LAMB3, and further experiments verified that miR-24-3p regulated LAMB3 expression in PDAC cells. A dual-luciferase reporter system demonstrated that miR-24-3p directly targeted the LAMB3 3'UTR, and FISH assay confirmed that miR-24-3p and LAMB3 mRNA mostly resided in cytoplasm, accounting for their post-translational regulation. Rescue assay demonstrated that miR-24-3p exerted its anti-cancer role by suppressing LAMB3 expression. Finally, by using a subcutaneous xenotransplanted tumor model, we demonstrated that miR-24-3p overexpression inhibited the proliferation of PDAC by suppressing LAMB3 expression in vivo.